1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hypoallergenic wheat preparation, a process for the production of the same, and a food product containing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Allergies are adverse immune reactions and are caused by the entry of foreign substances (allergens) into the body.
In recent years, the number of patients with allergy has soared. This is due to the ingestion of large amounts of protein along with the westernization of the diet. Further, other factors (for example, atmospheric pollution caused by exhaust gas and installation of carpets in western style homes with their high air-tightness and other facets of westernization of lifestyles) are complicatedly superimposed and various types of substances existing in the living environment are changed into allergens.
Food allergies to wheat and other cereals have also been soaring. Such food allergies often appear in infants and the adults and cause physical and mental distress to the sufferers, of course, and also great mental distress to their parents and families as a whole.
As a method for treatment of patients with food allergy, attempts have been made to limit or ban the ingestion of food which would be the cause of such problems. However, limitation of foods could inhibit the maintenance of life and growth. Therefore, a desirable method would be to have them ingest food from which the allergy causing components had been removed but where other nutritional components had not been impaired.
In the past, however, the specific antigen substance (allergen) in wheat and other cereals causing allergies in patients had not been clarified and had not been specified. Therefore, it has not been clear which component should be selectively removed or reduced and what method should be used for this purpose. It has only been reported, with respect to rice allergies, that the fraction of rice protein soluble in saline water is high in antigenicity (Miyakawa et al, 1988 Allergy Gakkai Yoshishu). Allergies, however, are immune reactions with extremely high specificity and it would be difficult to apply the discovery with regard to rice allergies to wheat allergies.
The present inventors analyzed in detail the components of wheat so as to solve the above problems and therefore investigated and examined the sera of persons suffering from allergies to wheat and the sera of normal persons. As a result, they discovered that it is possible to alleviate the onset of the allergies in patients with allergies to wheat by eliminating or reducing, from flour, proteins having molecular weights of not more than 30,000 or proteins having molecular weights of not more than 30,000 and proteins having molecular weights of 50,000 to 70,000. The present invention is based on this discovery.